How do I know it's fair trade?
As a retailer, working markets in a large Northern city, I love it when customers ask me this. It gives me an opportunity to tell the producers' stories, passed on to me by the suppliers, and to explain how BAFTS members have to go through a rigorous process of peer-review and an annual re-evaluation of their adherence to the Ten Principles of Fair Trade. If necessary, I carry on talking about the difference fair trade can make in producers' lives until the customers' eyes glaze over and they either walk away or buy something, hopefully satisfied with the fair trade credentials of their goods.
BAFTS recently received a complaint from a member of the public about a company describing itself as fair trade when, according to this person, they owed a Nepali producer a large amount of money. To give you an idea, it was roughly the same amount as I paid for my first house in Stockport in 2000, and it was enough to bankrupt the Nepali family to whom it was owed. As the complainant put it: Is this allowed in fair trade? I don't think so.
I don't think so either, but since the company in question is not a member of BAFTS there is, sadly, a limit to what we can do about it.
If the company was a supplier, selling goods as fair trade to BAFTS shop members, we would be able to warn members about the complaint, but so far as we can gather this company is predominantly a retailer. They were members of BAFTS in the past, but unlike some ex-members who seem unwilling to admit to no longer being BAFTS members, the company in question has not claimed membership of BAFTS or any other recognised fair trade organisation.
So while, if true, this story does mean that the retailer is operating against the principles of fair trade, the company has not technically infringed anything.
The words fair trade mean lots of different things to lots of different people, and unless a company can prove that its fair trade credentials have been independently verified, the only way to find out what fair trade means to them, is to ask, engage in conversations and give them the opportunity to explain why they think their goods are fair trade.
There are, of course, numerous companies which operate under all the Ten Principles of Fair Trade, and for various reasons choose not to join BAFTS, WFTO or other fair trade organisations, but in my experience, if someone's trading fairly they will be delighted to tell you all about what they do, who their producers are and the difference they make in people's lives.
We recommend you ask questions, listen to the stories and that's how you'll know it's fair trade.
Joanna Pollard
BAFTS Chair
